Blog: Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami

Image retrieved from: https://www.itk.ca/

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

Today, we want to introduce you to Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami [ITK], an Inuit organization that represents and works with the 4 Inuit regions in Canada collectively known as Inuit Nunangat: Inuvialuit Settlement Region (NW Territories), Nunavut, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), and Nunatsiavut (Northern Labrador).

About Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami

ITK’s vision is to see “Canadian Inuit prospering through unity and self-determination,” and their mission is to “[s]erve as a national voice protecting and advancing the rights and interests of [the 65,000] Inuit in Canada.”[1]

The ITK was founded in 1971 in Toronto, during a meeting by 7 Inuit community leaders, out of a “shared concern … about the status of land and resource ownership in Inuit Nunangat” and industrial encroachment “from projects such as the then proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline in the Northwest Territories and the James Bay project in Northern Québec.”[2] It was “agreed that forming a national Inuit organization was necessary to voice their concerns about these and related issues.”[3] Throughout its history, ITK has been active in land claims and has “played a leading role in the broader recognition of Indigenous rights in Canada”, even overseeing the Inuit Committee on National Issues, which successfully lobbied for the reinstatement of Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1985 after it was removed in 1981.[4]

While initially called “Inuit Tapiriit Canada,” the organization’s name was changed to “Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami” (which translates as “Inuit are united in Canada”) in 2001 “to reflect the settlement of land claims agreements in all Inuit regions following the Labrador Inuit Association’s signing of an Agreement-in-Principal for the Labrador land claims agreement.”[5] The current president is Natan Obed.[6]

ITK’s Work

The ITK works on a variety of projects in support of Canada’s Inuit communities. Here are a few highlights:

Community-Based Food Initiatives

ITK’s Nuluaq Project works to map community-based initiatives combatting food insecurity throughout Inuit Nunangat.[7] 11 organizations, 12 projects, and 15 communities across the 4 regions are involved with the project. Initiative types range from: country food knowledge sharing programs, food banks, community and soup kitchens, greenhouses, community freezer programs, hunter support programs, and commercial hunts.[8]

National Inuit Youth Counsel

ITK established the National Youth Council (NIYC) in 1993 in order “to provide guidance and input into issues of interest for Inuit youth in Canada.” The NIYC is made up of 7 representatives (6 voting members and 1 president) who are each “tasked with voicing the concerns and ideas of Inuit youth from their respective regions,” while the president (currently held by Crystal Martin-Lapenskie) serves “as the National voice of Inuit youth.”[9]

Climate Action

ITK recognizes that “[t]he world is looking to [their] homeland as a symbol of the planet’s changing climate.”[10] They also recognize that, to Inuit, climate change is “more than symbolic,” and that “[n]o one has more at stake when it comes to addressing climate change than Inuit.”[11] In response to the dire need to take climate action, ITK has established a National Climate Change Strategy.[12] The strategy focuses on 5 priority areas: (1) knowledge and capacity building; (2) health, well-being and the environment; (3) food systems; (4) infrastructure; and (5) energy.[13]

To learn more about the ITK and their projects, you can visit their website here.[14]

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

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[1] “Who We Are”, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, online: <https://www.itk.ca/national-voice-for-communities-in-the-canadian-arctic/>.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.